FEMS History (cont.) This act was implemented on July 1, 1884, and a volunteer/paid fire department came into existence, consisting of three engine companies and one ladder company. Four paid men, with six call men available to answer alarms, manned the engine companies; the ladder company had three paid men and seven call men. That same year, the first alarm system was installed with 25 telegraphic call boxes. They sent a code to Fire Alarm Headquarters identifying the box location. Headquarters then transmitted this code by telegraph to all fire stations and also activated large bells in towers and church steeples to ring out the same number, thus alerting the call men. During the remainder of the century, Washington's fire department continued to grow and saw its share of serious blazes; and, like today's fire service, an emergency was likely to call out the city's bravest. By the turn of the century, the department had grown to 20 companies, including 14 engine, 4 ladder and 2 chemical companies. Some of these units were to come to the aid of their fellow firefighters in Baltimore when the Great Fire of 1904 swept that city. Four DC engines made the 30 odd mile trip to battle this conflagration. A first for DC Fire Department took place in 1911, when the first motorized apparatus was placed in service with the newly formed Engine Company No. 24 on Georgia Avenue. The beginning of the end of an era had begun. The last run for horse-drawn apparatus took place on June 15, 1925, some 14 years later. This ceremonial run took place on East Capitol Street with the Capitol dome providing an impressive backdrop. Three years later on the night of January 16 -17, 1928, the department was run ragged and the city terrorized in a reign of arson known as Fisher Night. It all started at 10:41 pm, when a box alarm was sounded for a fire in the Woolworth's store at 925 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. This blaze escalated to five alarms and spectators to the battle found a new source of excitement when flames were discovered leaping from buildings on Produce Row a few blocks away. Page 2 of 3      1  2  3